ON THE PRICE OF GRAIN. 177 



having spared the English harvest, wrecked the Spanish fleet. The price 

 of barley, supplied from the Eastern counties only, is also low, though, 

 as is invariably the case with cheap wheat years, not proportionately 

 low. I have not inserted the price of the eight quarters bought on 

 Lestrange's Lands in December, for I am sure that there must be an 

 error in the account. The most careful scribe is not always exact, 

 and a survey of the year's prices convinces me that an error has been 

 made. Here again the Oxford Market and the All Souls prices are 

 suggestive, both being derived from the same returns, i. e. of the clerks 

 of the market. Some bigg bought at Worksop is nearly as cheap as 

 in the first half of the century. Rye is cheap, as also beans and peas. 

 I have not included in the latter the Worksop prices ; they are all seed, 

 and do not represent average values. Oats are very cheap, though 

 the average is heightened by large purchases on the Wardrobe 

 account. The price of oatmeal is almost absolutely uniform in places 

 as distant from each other as Oxford, Norfolk, and Worksop. 



1589-90. The evidence for this year is scanty. King's College, 

 Cambridge, and Eton still depend on the supplies paid to them through 

 their leases, though the former sells a small quantity of surplus wheat 

 and malt. The Oxford prices indicate that there was a rise shortly 

 after Michaelmas, and that this continued till later in the year. The 

 prices of wheat at Worksop are a great deal higher than the average, 

 and it seems clear that the harvest varied with the locality. Wheat- 

 flour is a little dearer than it was in 1588-9. These results are further 

 illustrated by the price of barley and malt. There are not many of 

 the former, but both these kinds of produce are cheap in the Eastern 

 counties and comparatively dear in the Midlands, the price rising 

 according to the All Souls rents after Lady Day. The same fact is 

 illustrated from the purchases of malt at Worksop, where the entries 

 appear to imply monthly buyings. Oats, on the other hand, are 

 cheaper than they were the year before, some in Norfolk being ex- 

 ceedingly low. But there was a cheap kind of oats grown in the 

 Eastern counties under the name of fen oats, of which we shall find 

 entries further on. Oatmeal is rather dearer. It appears here for 

 the first time? in two forms, meal and groats, the price being hardly 

 different. Probably it is a mere distinction between coarsely and 

 finely ground oats. The single entry of rye from Worksop corre- 

 sponds with the price of wheat in that place. Peas are found 'in 

 Bridge, beans at Oxford, and in the latter case the price rises as 

 year goes on. 



1590-1. The evidence is rather more copious. Wheat is rather 



VOL. V. N 



